


The Only Way Forward

by Indiana_J



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Dragon Age: Inquisition Spoilers, F/M, Spoilers, Trespasser DLC spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-16
Updated: 2015-09-16
Packaged: 2018-04-21 00:57:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4808816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indiana_J/pseuds/Indiana_J
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Inquisitor has only one path left to her if she wishes to survive the Anchor. She will not - cannot - let this stand in her way of her duties or the life with Cullen that has only really begun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Only Way Forward

**Author's Note:**

> This is my reaction to the Trespasser DLC so as of this portion, there will be spoilers! While I ultimately loved it, I was bothered by the very ending and how they handled the Anchor, Solas' help and the loss of her arm. So, this is where this came from.

The mirror had darkened when Inquisitor Ana Trevelyan had stepped through in her pursuit of Viddasala and what remained of her forces. Ana had only a few moments to wonder how, exactly, she would be returning to the friends trapped on the other side before her attention had been dragged to the larger matters at hand.

Now it didn’t even register that the formerly dark mirror was silver and alive once more. Her mind couldn’t even register all that she had discovered from - about - Solas. Instead, her entire focus was on the searing pain that ran from fingertip to elbow. Solas’ intervention had bought her minutes, nothing more.

He’d given her a gift of time. She best not waste it.

“ _Bull_!” Her scream startled her companions as Ana fell through the now active Eluvian. Her legs buckled but Dorian was closest to the mirror - his attempts at reactivating it had been useless but it had given him something to do - and he caught her against his chest. He staggered a few steps as he struggled to keep them on their feet.

“Boss?” The Iron Bull was instantly at her side and Varric wasn’t far behind. He looked down and his eye widened as Ana shifted and they all saw the mess of her hand and the Anchor cradled between her body and Dorian’s. “Oh shit, boss.”

“What - is that _stone_?” Dorian asked, shocked.

Solas’ last, desperate measure had been to render Ana’s forearm to stone. Unlike the Qunari, who had remained stone, the Anchor was burning away the impasse. Green and angry looking fissures ran the length of stone and, even worse, were starting to appear further up.

The Anchor flared and Ana screamed as Dorian pressed her against his chest, staring at the others above her head. She was dying and they knew it. They'd known or had guessed it for some time now but it was clear that the end was closer than they'd thought.

“Bull,” Varric said, “she called your name when she came back through. Why?”

“Because she knows that I know what to do.” Bull took in the area that surrounded them and realized that there was no good spot for what they had to do. “Dorian, that fire shit you do. Can you channel it so that it heats something up really, really hot without blowing the damned thing up?”

“What? I suppose, though I rarely have need …” His eyes narrowed. “Kaffas. You cannot be suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”

Varric cursed as he sat Bianca down where she wouldn’t get in the way but would be easily reachable if needed. The Inquisitor was a shrewd woman and he wasn't a dumb man. It was obvious what she wanted them to do. “It’s the arm or her life, Sparkler.”

“ _Kaffas_!”

“Do it,” Ana said faintly, forehead pressed into Dorian's shoulder. “ _Now_  before the damned Anchor kills me in this fucking place.”

Dorian sighed and took a step back, though he kept a firm hold of Ana. Soaked with sweat, pale and exhausted, she nonetheless tried to flash him a reassuring smile. It only made him frown more. “Varric, would you take care of our fearless leader for a few moments?” he finally said, easing her down to a sitting position. “Festis bei umo canavarum, I swear.”

The dwarf had immediately settled himself next to her and Ana found herself propped up against him. The world around them was starting to go a greyish green around the edges and her heart beat felt sluggish in her chest.

“Varric?”

He urged her to sink further down so that she could pillow her head on his lap while the rest of her was stretched out. “I’m here, your Inquisitorialness.”

She smiled. “If this doesn’t work -”

“Hey now, Ana…”

Her good hand squeezed his knee and he fell silent. This was important. And they all knew that amputating the hand with the Anchor might not _be_  enough. Two plus years she had lived with magic that was never intended to be hers. Yes, it was only recently that it had begun to change but chances were high that the Anchor had shortened her lifespan without her realizing it.

The leathers under Ana’s cheek were softer than she’d expected and warm. Laying down seemed to have eased the pain somewhat, though she was fully aware that it was there, watching and waiting. It was like the ocean before the storm destroyed the cities on the coast... She realized with a sudden start that she’d been starting to slip away and it scared her she didn’t know if it was simply a moment of exhaustion or the moment.

What had she been … oh. Yes.

“It was worth it,” Ana said to Varric’s knees. “All of it. Tell Cullen that.” She tried to look up, see his face but Varric’s hand on her head urged her to stillness. “Tell them all that but especially…” A shudder ran through her and tears ran down her cheeks unchecked. "I'd do it all again even if we ended up here again." She grimaced through a wave of pain pushed against her, testing her remaining strength.

Varric’s own pained expression turned towards Iron Bull and Dorian. The Qunari was holding his two handed battle axe steady as Dorian placed his hands on either side of the blade. Fire engulfed his hands and looked to be straining to move away but the look of concentration on the mage’s face told Varric that the fire magic would not be winning this fight. Make the blade so hot it would cauterize the wound - brilliant and necessary if they didn't want her bleeding out while they tried to get her home.

“If this doesn’t work, I promise Cullen will be the first person I speak to.” Ana pressed her face into his leg and Varric’s touch was gentle as he smoothed her sweat soaked hair out of her eyes. “But since I know this is going to work, you get to be the one to tell your husband why you’ve come back sporting one less limb.”

_Her husband_. The thought was making her smile when the Anchor flared and struck violently. Her screams echoed off the rocks around them as she thrashed, arching her back as the pain roared through her body. Varric found himself on his knees, pressing down on her shoulders, struggling to keep her still. Green light poured through the cracks in her forearm and, for a heart stopping moment, it looked as if her eyes were flashing green as well.

“If you’re going to do it, you better do it right fucking now!” Varric yelled. Dwarves were a naturally dense, heavy people and he used it to his advantage in his attempt to stop her frantic movements. It still felt as if he was on the losing end of a battle with a dragon - Ana wielded a two handed weapon herself and was no Merrill, a woman who could be held down with a strong enough wind. Ana's strength warred with his and he couldn’t tell which of them were the more desperate of the two.

Ana screamed so loudly it felt as if the false Gods themselves might be able to hear her. She couldn’t feel anything but the searing green magic of the Void now. She didn’t feel Dorian wrench her arm out away from her body, didn’t feel his knee as it pressed down into her shoulder. She couldn’t feel the warmth of Varric’s body as he threw himself across her torso. She couldn't think, she couldn't breathe, all she could do was  _scream_  as the magic shot along her veins in a desperate race for her heart.

But there were small mercies, as well, in this state. For Ana didn’t feel the swing of the magically heated axe bite through her arm, right above the elbow. She didn’t feel the intense heat that cauterized the stump. She didn't feel the magic that had been hers since the summit die in an instant, leaving her bereft but at peace at last.

Her body went limp as her screams turned to silence.

Dorian felt this and turned, reaching down, “No! No, you stupid …”

“Dorian! _Dorian_!” Varric slapped his frantic hands away from Ana’s face. “She’s alive. She’s breathing, okay?” He pushed the other man away until they could all see the rise and fall of Ana's chest.

Iron Bull slipped the axe into the holder for it, not caring that the heat blistered his back. What mattered was the woman at his feet. “We need to move,” he said, picking her up as if she weighed no more than a small bag, instead of a heavily armored warrior. “If we want the Boss to survive this, we have to get her back to the Winter Palace.”

Nodding in agreement, Dorian turned to leave but froze for a moment before he pointed to a small section where a broken Eluvian had lain in pieces. It was slowly reforming itself, piece by broken piece, until the surface was whole and as peaceful as a silver lake. Then light blazed forth, powerful and bright. A beacon.

“Normally, I would advise against taking a magically self-repairing Eluvian,” he said slowly. “But I think we’ve been given a gift of speed. I’m not sure what Solas has gotten himself tangled up in but I know that magical signature anywhere. It should be safe.”

It was either that or try to make it back the way they came. They simply didn't have the luxury of time anymore.

“Come on,” Varric responded, heading towards what was hopefully not a one way trip into the stomach of a dragon. “Before she wakes up and decides it's a good idea to take her arm with us as a trophy."

 

 


End file.
